Galen Rupp Breaks American Indoor Two-Mile Record

8:07.41 betters Bernard Lagat's mark by 2 seconds.

Galen Rupp has now broken two American indoor records in just more than a week, as he regained ownership of the U.S. indoor two-mile best by running 8:07.41 at Boston University’s Terrier Classic on Saturday night. That lowered the record of 8:09.49 set by Bernard Lagat in 2013, which had surpassed Rupp’s own 2012 standard of 8:09.72.

On January 16 at BU, Rupp clocked 13:01.26 for 5000 meters to break Lopez Lomong’s American record of 13:07.00.

As reported by Letsrun.com, Rupp’s approach to attacking the two-mile record was quite different from what he’d done in running his 5000. In the 5000, he was running behind what were ostensibly the laps splits needed to better Lomong’s mark, but he sped up for a strong last mile, and in particular the final kilometer, to get well under the time he required.

In Saturday’s two-mile in Boston, abetted by capable pacesetters, Rupp was initially on schedule early to break Kenensia Bekele’s world record indoor of 8:04.35. The opening 1200-meter split by rabbit Taylor Gilland, with Rupp right in tow, was 2:59.8, and the full mile was hit in 4:01.6. Kenyan Bethwell Bergin took over for another fast 400, but the pace lagged a bit after that.

Still, with a margin of error to work with, Rupp managed to take more than two seconds off of Lagat’s record and become the #6 performer worldwide on the all-time indoor two-mile list.

That first mile in just around 4:02 “is what we wanted,” Rupp’s coach, Alberto Salazar, told Flotrack after the race. “Galen tied up a little bit at the end but hung on to get the record. It’s okay,” he added. Salazar had been gesturing for Rupp to go to his arms more in the final laps, and Rupp was indeed consciously pumping his arms more vigorously. "He doesn’t feel as fresh as he normally does,” Salazar observed of Rupp, who apparently was still feeling some effects of his 5000, “but when you’re at new levels of fitness, you can run fast despite not feeling fresh.”

Salazar is known for putting his athletes through rigorous workouts after their all-out race efforts. As Flotrack reports, after taking a 15-minute post-race break, including some autograph signing, Rupp did five times a mile, with 400-meter recoveries between, in 4:21, 4:20, 4:20, 4:16, and 4:01.

Rupp will be back at Boston University for one more race on February 8, a mile. He ran 3:50.92 at BU last winter, and he’ll be taking a shot at Lagat’s American indoor best of 3:49.89. Salazar expects him to be a little more well-rested, but still quite sharp, on that occasion.

On Friday, the first of the two days of the Terrier Classic, Rupp’s Oregon Project teammate Mary Cain ran the mile with the hope, at age 17, of breaking the world junior (under age 20) indoor record of 4:24.10 by Kalkaden Gezahegne of Ethiopia, and with the long-shot dream of going after Mary Slaney’s American record of 4:20.5.

Cain fell just 1/100th short of Gezahegne’s mark with a 4:24.11, which did demolish her own U.S. junior record of 4:28.25. Abbey D’Agostino of Dartmouth was second in 4:28.31 and Cain’s Oregon Project colleague Jordan Hasay was third in 4:28.37 after leading the early laps.